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Comment by na85 | Hacker News Reader

>"Cryptocurrencies are a particular concern. I think many are used - at least in a transaction sense - mainly for illicit financing.

>"And I think we really need to examine ways in which we can curtail their use and make sure that money laundering doesn't occur through those channels."

Yuck, as much as I hate this argument, which is basically just the "think of the children" argument restated, I'm rather convinced that Yellen's point is true.

There are no legitimate uses for bitcoin that I can think of, other than:

- An instrument for speculative investing

- Sending money to dissidents in other countries

Neither of these seem like high-priority use cases that will suffer unduly from more regulation. By contrast the primary use case for bitcoin seems to be riding the speculation bubble, followed by buying stolen accounts/credit cards/identities and illegal drugs.

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Not having your savings blown away by indiscriminate money printing, UBI or whatever inflationary scheme awaits us is a pretty good legitimate use.

Both statements hold some truth. It’s a shame when a failing financial system pushes ordinary law-abiding citizens into financial alignment with their enemies. History is full of these situations.

Buying drugs, paying ransom to hackers, paying for vpn services, and paying for pirate sites.

Also I guess making simple transactions complicated for cool nerd points.

P2P value transfer? Hedge against inflation?

There are others as well...

>By contrast the primary use case for bitcoin seems to be riding the speculation bubble, followed by buying stolen accounts/credit cards/identities and illegal drugs.

Do you have any evidence of how prevalent this is on the network?

Alex Gladstein, Chief Strategy Officer of the Human Rights Foundation, someone who spends a lot of time and energy trying to help people in economically repressed circumstances, clearly disagrees with your assessment:

https://time.com/5486673/bitcoin-venezuela-authoritarian/

https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1340836877595594752.html

Not sure there's a lot of light between

> Sending money to dissidents in other countries

and the uses that Gladstein mentions. So I wouldn't say that he "clearly disagrees".

Bitcoin isn't the only game in town. You can do more with something like Ethereum or Stellar. Unlike cash, it's also much easier to track the flows of crypto.

The real is issue is how long will the US dollar retain its status as the reserve currency? and what will take its place?

Facebook is trying really hard with Diem

One of the memes in the Bitcoin community is that of Bitcoin eventually becoming a better store of value. One can argue that most people prefer their savings not be inflated away [1].

1: https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/CUUR0000SA0R

It does act as a secure, transferable store of value. In the event that you have to flee your home country or its financial system is compromised you could go anywhere and retain some portion of your personal wealth.

Legitimate use cases can include donations.

No longer feasible with Tx fees rising to several USD. Also plenty other coins that are 1000 times faster and 1000 times cheaper. There is no reason someone would pick BTC for donations unless he already holds some.

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